It’s high time one of those
so-called experts on child
psychology told distraught New
Bern parents what to do about
Junior’s first barbershop hair
cut.
Perhaps no other juvenllle
upheaval Is ever more violent,
and though the storm Is tem
porary, It leaves Mom and Dad
emotionally bankrupt. What it
does to the poor barber is too
horrible to dwell upon.
Look into the clipper
wlelder’s anguished eyes, and
you’ll realize that he suffers
more than anyone else. From
the sound of things you would
think It Is Junior rather than
parents and barber, who is being
subjected to unbearable pain.
However, like all kids in
similar circumstances his
screams don’t stem from real
or imaginary hurts. He’s a
victim of fear, liberally mixed
with a seasoning of tempera
ment.
In fact, lots of little boys
who get carted to a New Bern
barber shop for shearing are
more spoiled than scared. Quite
a few are terrified, it’s true,
especially on the first trip,
but when a youngster escapes
with his ears still intact, his
fears should diminish with each
succeeding trip to the tonsorial
parlor.
However, it’s a matter of sad
record that plenty of the small
fry keep right on acting up.
Patents naturally become aware
of this unhappy fact, and think
up all kinds of excuses to avoid
the responsibility of seeing that
Junior’s overly long tresses
don’t transform him Into some
thing resembling an undipped
poodle.
Ask any local barber and he’ll
tell you that a child invariably
behaves better if Mom isn’t
present for the ordeal. For one
thing, the average mother is
quick to give advice on how her
offspring's cranium should be
trimmed, and most of the advice
is impractical and inadvisable.
If a barber is a good barber,
and most of the ones in New
Bern are, he’ll do all right by
your brat. If he Isn’t a good
barber, giving advice isn’t
going to help.
Besides, proud Mamas are
apt to sympathize with their
little darlings, and sympathy
at times is the wrong kind of
medicine. One of those times
is in a barber’s chair. The
kind of medicine that Junior
needs when he acts up
excessively at a scissor party
is a well applied spanking.
That he will never get, if
you’re like the average New
Bern parent. The barber, in
his secret heart, would find deep
satisfaction in taking care of
both ends of the brat, but he
isn’t going to volunteer his
services for this extra atten
tion.
Of course, barbers have kids
of their own, and these kids
cut up' over cut offs just like
the young sons of the butcher,
the baker, and the candlestick
maker. In fact, the greatest
commotion this town ever saw
in a barber shop occurred when
an unhappy barbei' was chopping
off his own little boy's hair
for the first time.
It is Interesting to note that
very few mothers have a similar
problem when they take their
small daughters to one of New
Bern's beauty shops for the first
time. Feminine vanity asserts
(Continued on page 8)
The NEW BERN
5 Per
VOLUME 6
NEW BERN, N. C., FRIDAY, JUNE 7, 1963
NUMBER 10
ITS REMARKABLE—Don’t ask us how Celia Ferebee
Gillikin managed to get the members of
their Chirst Church kindergarten still enough to have
their picture snapped. Maybe they’re tied to the floor.
Left to right in the first row are Karen Batten, Jeffrey
Wilson, Joy Cayton, Hubert Tolson III, Susan Best, Joe
Henry Lib Henry, Charley Bratten, Kim Alcoke and
Mary Pleasant Bullock. Second row, Ronnie Barbetta
Elizabeth Wall, Harry Lingman, Kathy Coleman, George
Hancock, Lucy Dunlap, Ricky Broadstreet, Margaret
Stevens, Edmund Taylor, Ginger Lancaster. Third row,
Jeannie Douglass, Ross Coppage, Joni Joseph, Jeffrey
Barefoot, Susan Reesman, Bob Baggett, Lee Jones,
Edward Boyd, Frances Lynne Townsend, Bob Wylie,’
and Susan King. Fourth row, Clark Davis, Annette Wil
lis, Johnny Mattox, Bettye Jo Paramore, David Wil
liams, Nancy Griffin, Mark Pierce, Dennie Best, James
Rankin, Cathy Simons. Fifth row. Bill Willis, Linda
Whitley, Greg Herring, Claire Stephens, Jeff Simpson,
Susan Askew, Gregg Andrews, Marjorie Rose Disosway,
Ski Bo Gryb, and Pamella Jones.—Photo by John R
Baxter.
nTnilnrU’ Tr Variety Vaca- the more than 4^miles of Blue Ridge Parkway motor
tionland (Betty Lawhorn), who has visited in New road. The elevati^ is more than a^milp
Bern, um/eils a mal-ker indicating the highest point on Bern. than a mile above New
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